We’re moving. Our landlord has decided to sell the house we’re in. Moving is a drag, but it will give us a chance to test-live Petaluma before plunking life’s savings into a house.
To keep the packing and moving crankies in check, I’ve taken to calling out the things I will not miss about this house.
“Charming vintage cottage”
So very cute from the street. But don’t get too close. If you do, you’ll see:
- The peeling paint
Painting is hard!
- The garage that my brother-in-law dubbed “The Hobo Shack”
Picking paint colors is harder!
- The long driveway. I have to back down it, then parallel-park against the house. The long driveway ends in bricks that are even more ramshackle than the Shack.
It was only a matter of time before I got a flat.
- The sloping floors
- The crooked windows
- The leaks in said crooked windows
- The leak in the roof
- The clawfoot tub and the magnets needed to hold the shower curtain in place
- The creepy Harry Potter’s closet
- The dishwasher and fridge
And I most certainly will not miss the squatters in the shack:
The close-up
Step a bit farther back, and you get the full story
Last night, Derek walked up the garage stairs to the attic to get moving boxes. He asked me to shine the flashlight up there. I did. He asked me to get closer. In the dark with just a keychain flashlight, I came face to face with a rat. I screamed. After I realized he was dead, I was mad at Derek for not noticing and thus protecting me from the rat. But all that is mitigated, I guess, by the fact that today I climbed back up there to take photos of a dead rat. I tried to get the lighting right, until I started hearing – or imagining – noises. Then I scurried down faster than, well, a rat.
What WILL I miss about this house? Only a few things:
- The proximity to friends
- The fact that we spent our first years of marriage here
- The fruitful plum tree and the resulting plum wine
- The calla lilies
A bit of beauty. Too bad we’ll be gone before Easter.
- The horsie-door at the front of the house. It’s cute! Even if it is, as one friend called it, a one-kick door. And even if we never had the key to the front door and always had to enter or leave through the back.
I know there will be things to love and hate about the new place. But I’m excited for our new adventure. Now, if only I could get the genies to come and magically pack all our boxes…